serious case
science errors overrun
our neurons as memories
worsen in a serious
arms race never worn out since
we are now aware our cars
run on arms and our moon race
increases minor murmurs
I added the constraint of seven lines of seven syllables to "the prisoner's constraint," since I was feeling pretty challenged to make sense of the words themselves. You might call this "the prisoner's constraint squared."
Except for "moon," the words for this poem were sourced from "Why We Keep Losing Our Keys: Everyday Memory Lapses Hit at Any Age; Training to Find Things Faster" by Sumathi Reddy in the Health and Wellness section of the WSJ, April 15, 2014, D1-2.
The Prisoner's Constraint:
Imagine a prisoner whose supply of paper is restricted. To put it to
fullest use, he will maximize his space by avoiding any letter extending
above or below the line (b, d,f,g,h,j,k,l,p,q,t and y) and use only
a,c,e,m,n,o,r,s,u,v,w,x and z. Compose a poem using only words that can
be made from these letters AND which you source from your newspaper
text. (The Found Poetry Review)
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
OULIPOST POEM #9: What's in an NBA Agent's Bag?
What's in an NBA Agent's Bag?
Big Hedge Funds
Puerto Rican Debt
No-Mess Crafts
Whole Foods
Dice
Lavender-filled Teddy Bears from Tasmania
OULIPOST PROMPT #9: Headlines (Variations of Jean Queval’s “Cent On”) – Compose a poem whose body is sourced from article headlines in your newspaper. This poem was created with headlines from the April 9, 2014 Wall Street Journal:
What's in an NBA Agent's Bag?
Lavender-filled Teddy Bears from Tasmania
are a Big Hit in China
Big Hedge Funds Roll Dice on Puerto Rica Debt
Moms Pay whatever it takes for No-Mess Crafts
It's Really Hard to be a Whole Foods Clone
Thursday, April 3, 2014
OULIPOST POEM #3: Queen of the Night
QUEEN OF THE NIGHT
Every period of darkness between one day
and the next--the time day
of when no light
from the sun can be seen and most people
and animals sleep--she places the part
of the body she sees with in a state of touching
with the part of the body someone else
sees with, in an attractive manner that flows
clearly from the source. She does this with a group
of human beings gathered around a common
interest and settled in close proximity--
separated merely by the distance
of an upper human limb.
Directions for the "Definitional Lit" assignment:
"Select a single sentence from a newspaper article.
Replace each meaningful word in the text [verb, noun, adjective, adverb]
by its dictionary definition. Repeat this treatment on the
resulting sentence, and so on, until you’ve had enough!"
Here's the sentence I chose:
From "Valerie Benoit-Charbonneau on Acting, Improvising and
Eye Contact in 'Queen of the Night'," in the April 2, 2014 online
edition of the WSJ.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Oulipost Poem #2: MY BID
The LIPOGRAM assignment for today required me to omit from my poem any words that use letters in my chosen newspaper’s title. It turns out that The Wall Street Journal includes all of the vowels except “I,” and many popular vowels that combine with I: H, N, S, T as well as J and W. This means that the only vowel in my chosen words is I, but I can’t use: “in,” “it,” “is,” “hi,” “his” . . . not to mention countless other combinations. Toughest restriction I’ve ever worked with!
My Bid
Mid
big fig gig
I
bid Xi dig
pig
I began by searching an article in the April 2 issue of the
WSJ about China admitting French pork into its markets, but was only able to
use the first name of the Chinese President and the source of the pork product,
with a few others words that, frankly, came from a short list I compiled of possibilities
that fit the restriction.
Oulipost Poem #1: Cereal Killer
Cereal Killer
After years of planting one massive crop after another, U.
S. Corn farmers are planning to pull back.
“It’s a different world than we were in just a couple years
ago,” said Patrick Westfhoff.
Growing global competition is emerging as rapid growth in
corn demand at home ends.
Record-setting corn prices spurred production elsewhere.
Thousands of metric tons rejected by China because they
contained a genetically modified strain unapproved in that country.
On the Kansas-Oklahoma border, Kenny Mitchell is trying to
navigate price-swings.
“Selling the corn is almost as important as raising it.”
This poem, a quote cento, was written entirely with phrases from The Wall Street Journal for April 1,
2014. "Cereal Killer" was created from a single article, “Corn
Farmers’ Seed of Doubt” by Mark Peters and Tony C. Dreibus, p. A3. The title comes from a chart accompanying the
article. I can say that my first experiment with this form led me to read far more of the newspaper in the morning than I usually do.
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